Benthic diel oxygen variability and stress as potential drivers for animal diversification in the Neoproterozoic-Palaeozoic

Emma U. Hammarlund (), Anuraag Bukkuri, Magnus D. Norling, Mazharul Islam, Nicole R. Posth, Etienne Baratchart, Christopher Carroll, Sarah R. Amend, Robert A. Gatenby, Kenneth J. Pienta, Joel S. Brown, Shanan E. Peters and Kasper Hancke
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Emma U. Hammarlund: Lund University
Anuraag Bukkuri: Lund University
Magnus D. Norling: Norwegian Institute for Water Research (NIVA)
Mazharul Islam: Lund University
Nicole R. Posth: University of Copenhagen
Etienne Baratchart: Lund University
Christopher Carroll: Lund University
Sarah R. Amend: Johns Hopkins School of Medicine
Robert A. Gatenby: Moffitt Cancer Center
Kenneth J. Pienta: Johns Hopkins School of Medicine
Joel S. Brown: Moffitt Cancer Center
Shanan E. Peters: University of Wisconsin–Madison
Kasper Hancke: Norwegian Institute for Water Research (NIVA)

Nature Communications, 2025, vol. 16, issue 1, 1-12

Abstract: Abstract The delay between the origin of animals in the Neoproterozoic and their Cambrian diversification remains perplexing. Animal diversification mirrors an expansion in marine shelf area under a greenhouse climate, though the extent to which these environmental conditions directly influenced physiology and early organismal ecology remains unclear. Here, we use a biogeochemical model to quantify oxygen dynamics at the sunlit sediment-water interface over day-night (diel) cycles at warm and cold conditions. We find that warm temperatures dictated physiologically stressful diel benthic oxic-anoxic shifts over a nutrient-rich shelf. Under these conditions, a population-and-phenotype model further show that the benefits of efficient cellular oxygen sensing that can offer adaptations to stress outweigh its cost. Since diurnal benthic redox variability would have expanded as continents were flooded in the end-Neoproterozoic and early Palaeozoic, we propose that a combination of physiological stress and ample resources in the benthic environment may have impacted the adaptive radiation of animals tolerant to oxygen fluctuations.

Date: 2025
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DOI: 10.1038/s41467-025-57345-0

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